Archive
for
November 23rd, 2010

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG4UMxP3HsM]
YouTube link.
A recent post about a newscaster's gaffe prompted me to seek out this classic clip. It was first posted on YouTube almost five years ago, but is wort...

XYZ Blocks - $29.95
If you think playing with your kids is boring maybe you just need to invest in cooler toys. Check out the XYZ blocks now available at the NeatoShop. These are not your grandma's wooden blocks....

Defense contractor Battelle has developed an improved pneumatically-launched grappling hook. From a press release:
The Tactical Air Initiated Launch (TAIL) system is used to launch a titanium grappling hook towing a...

(Video Link)
This video shows two performers spotted a few times in subway terminals in New York City. The man plays an accordion while the woman puts on a puppet show. Her puppet appears to be a plastic bag shape...

Haidar Taleb, a man from the United Arab Emirates, plans to travel 200 miles across a desert in a solar-powered wheelchair that he designed and built himself. If he succeeds, it'll be the longest continuous distance eve...

Hero of Alexandria (10-70 CE) was a Greek engineer and mathematician who lived in Roman-ruled Egypt. He invented many gadgets and wrote at length about them. In his book Pneumatics, he described an early...

(Video Link)
The common coffeemaker is a simple but brilliant piece of technology. How does it work? Bill Hammack, who explains engineering principles in a way that laypeople can understand them, tells us in this...

In 1950, Tony Sale was 19 years old and serving in the British Royal Air Force. He built a human-sized robot out of scrap metal from a crashed Wellington bomber. Sale named the robot George and got quite a bit of press...

University of California neurobiologist Herwig Baier thinks that fish -- or at least one species of fish -- may be able to suffer from mood disorders. He examined zebrafish that became inactive and listless when isolate...

(Video Link)
This video shows a man in Turkey jumping out of a motorcycle's sidecar and onto a moving truck. He steals one of the sheep in the back. What do you think: real or staged?
via Nerdcoreturkey, sheep,...

Justin Mitchell has cataloged his dice collection and put photos of them online. Some of them are quite unusual, either made of uncommon materials or offering unconventional ranges. Pictured above is a 36-sided die...

(Video Link)
Artist Chris Burden built "Metropolis II", a representation of road traffic in Los Angeles. It shows 1,200 toy cars moving along 18 lanes:
Two years ago he created a 65-foot Erector Set skyscraper t...

This is a cloud that has broken off the Carina Nebula. It's about 8,000 light years away and has a nasty attitude. Or did, at least 8,000 years ago. Did we do something offensive at the time?
Link via Geekologi...

It sounds like something the dog says when he's trying to recall where he buried it! No, it's today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. How much do you remember about the bones of the human body? In this quiz, you'll b...

German designer Christoph Thetard designed a versatile kitchen appliance that uses no electricity, because it's powered by the chef's foot! The R2B2 has three attachments: a chopper, blender, and grinder that all con...

The editors of Slate asked their readers how Thanksgiving cooking traditions get passed from one generation to the next. They collected stories and posted them. It seems that in many families, the one who cooks every yea...

It's Tuesday and you know what that means! Another puzzle from our pals at Conceptis Puzzles! Yes, every Tuesday, we'll be offering a different logic puzzle, today featuring a 9x9 Pic-A-Pix puzzle. Each puzzle consists...

You can enter a picture in National Geographic's annual photo contest until November 30th, but the competition is stiff. See 47 of the most awesome entries so far presented in large size on one page at The Big Pictur...

(YouTube link)
Many people compared this reaction to a television laugh track. My children, who obviously haven't watched enough BBC TV, asked why anyone would eat Brussells sprouts and Christmas crackers for a holi...